Anyone have experience with modern Mini Computers?

[frayne]

Thanks for the info. I don't know much about the Mac world. Looks like refurbs/renews that were originally built within the last 5 years run at about $450. I think that is what you are suggesting. Correct?

Correct.

 

[Alex The Great]

I use Intel stick like this one as a remote computer:
https://www.amazon.com/ALADAWN-Compute-Windows-Support-Bluetooth/dp/B0BHW85ZJJ
Once thing to watch is RAM size: 8GB is fine but I did have another stick with 4GB a while ago and apparently it was not sufficient for Windows 10. Another issue it may become noisy due to the cooler installed in some models.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

I use Intel stick like this one as a remote computer:
https://www.amazon.com/ALADAWN-Compute-Windows-Support-Bluetooth/dp/B0BHW85ZJJ
Once thing to watch is RAM size: 8GB is fine but I did have another stick with 4GB a while ago and apparently it was not sufficient for Windows 10. Another issue it may become noisy due to the cooler installed in some models.

I had no idea that such a thing existed. I have bookmarked the page and will investigate after cooking DW's dinner. Thanks.

 

[target2019]

Ah! I have been withholding critical info from this discussion. 32 GB and 1 TB would be great, but you completely ignore the DW factor (because I never told you about it). In this case, the DW wants to limp along with the old painful sometimes functioning laptop instead of buying a mini. So, my goal is to get something more reliable without a lot of money.

Nothing in this world is 100% reliable. I am not qualified to spend your money or give marital advice.


I would buy, and then take her to dinner...

 

[Deansgg]

This is my first post .... been lurking for quite a few years.

Personally I avoid products made in China whenever possible (which, unfortunately, is rare). A few years ago I built a the mini-ITX from this site ( https://techbuyersguru.com/tbg-diy-pc-build-guides/?filterstate=off ) and was very pleased with the end result. I run Ubuntu and all hardware was recognized for a flawless start. The site also has plans for an Ultra Compact NUC that, although more $$, sounds like would meet your desires nicely.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

This is my first post .... been lurking for quite a few years.

Personally I avoid products made in China whenever possible (which, unfortunately, is rare). A few years ago I built a the mini-ITX from this site ( https://techbuyersguru.com/tbg-diy-pc-build-guides/?filterstate=off ) and was very pleased with the end result. I run Ubuntu and all hardware was recognized for a flawless start. The site also has plans for an Ultra Compact NUC that, although more $$, sounds like would meet your desires nicely.

Welcome and thanks. This began reading the link. Do not know if I am up for a build, but who knows?

 

[5Miler]

I use a number of mini PCs in my home, some for actual real use and some just to geek out. Other than my real PCs and servers I also use an Intel NUC with i3 processor running ProxMox under Linux (PLEX Server and PiHole), an HP Elitedesk 800 G4 Mini with an Intel i5 8500T processor running Windows 10 (Win Media Server). I have two Dell/Wyse 5060 Thin Clients both running Linux with one set up for Home Assistant to do home automation chores. The second is a plaything. Also have a Raspberry Pi 3+ running Heimdall in Linux just to keep up with all my servers with web interfaces running headless so I don't need KVMs.

You should check out a youtube channel called "ServeTheHome" as they often feature in depth reviews of mini PCs including disassembly and upgrade options. They are quite entertaining and don't drone on like many youtubers do.

https://www.youtube.com/@ServeTheHomeVideo/videos

Edited to add that I bought all of them used via EBAY.

 

[skyking1]

Geek out, LOL.
I still have my first mini, a specialty board with 4 x 1 GB network ports and a VIA 1Ghz CPU
COMMELL LE-565 5.25 Fanless Embedded VIA Eden Miniboard

It uses very little 12VDC, and I toyed with the idea of putting it on a car battery and solar panel for a remote DVR for a few cameras.
It has a ton of headers on it, it reminds me of the Pi units.

 

[Beststash]

I always thought minicomputers went away after the DEC PDP-11 series faded away in the 80's. They did make UNIX very popular and I think a lot of the old command line crowd is fading away also.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

You should check out a youtube channel called "ServeTheHome" as they often feature in depth reviews of mini PCs including disassembly and upgrade options. They are quite entertaining and don't drone on like many youtubers do.

https://www.youtube.com/@ServeTheHomeVideo/videos

Edited to add that I bought all of them used via EBAY.

Bookmarked the channel. Thanks.

At w*rk, a side duty was directing some young geeks who maintained about 35 HP thin clients in a retail setting. Could never get the spares to do anything useful, but they sure had a bunch of USB ports.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

I always thought minicomputers went away after the DEC PDP-11 series faded away in the 80's. They did make UNIX very popular and I think a lot of the old command line crowd is fading away also.

I haven't heard the term PDP 11 in about a thousand years or so. Do you remember the IBM 36 line?

 

[teetee]

For office related work and movie watching, web surfing activities, I turned to low powered x86 windows laptops. Right now I have a couple lenovo 300e and 100e's. They do whatever I need and I can bring them on my trips.

This is after checking out and playing around with Raspberry Pi, fit-PC2, and a couple of fan-less mini PCs. I don't think i5 or ryzen based CPUs can get away with not using active cooling unless you go with the significantly crippled ultra portable version.

 

[5Miler]

At w*rk, a side duty was directing some young geeks who maintained about 35 HP thin clients in a retail setting. Could never get the spares to do anything useful, but they sure had a bunch of USB ports.

The thin clients apparently came into vogue after I left the field and went into management. My last 10 years was spent managing Engineers subbed to Sun Microsystems so Solaris was our primary OS.

I bought the two Wyse 5060 thin clients on EBAY and both had 4 GB of memory and a 16 GB SSD with a light version of Windows. I added a second 4 GB DIMM and swapped in a 256MB (my typical overkill) SSD. These are cheaper than a Raspberry Pi at today's prices and will run rings around it CPU wise. All in all a good toy to play with operating systems. They will run Windows 10 and really run well on Linux. I think I paid $40 each for them last year including shipping although they seem to be a little higher these days.

For a really informative guide on mini pcs with upgrade info try the link below. Again, a wealth of information I use often and helped me a lot upgrading my Wyse 5060s.

https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/wyse/5060/

 

[jollystomper]

I always thought minicomputers went away after the DEC PDP-11 series faded away in the 80's. They did make UNIX very popular and I think a lot of the old command line crowd is fading away also.

It did. The more accurate term for what is being discussed on this thread is mini-pc or mini personal computer.

I used a PDP-11 for the majority of my college computer science coursework (as well as some non-coursework game development back then ).

 

[Z3Dreamer]

The thin clients apparently came into vogue after I left the field and went into management. My last 10 years was spent managing Engineers subbed to Sun Microsystems so Solaris was our primary OS.

I bought the two Wyse 5060 thin clients on EBAY and both had 4 GB of memory and a 16 GB SSD with a light version of Windows. I added a second 4 GB DIMM and swapped in a 256MB (my typical overkill) SSD. These are cheaper than a Raspberry Pi at today's prices and will run rings around it CPU wise. All in all a good toy to play with operating systems. They will run Windows 10 and really run well on Linux. I think I paid $40 each for them last year including shipping although they seem to be a little higher these days.

For a really informative guide on mini pcs with upgrade info try the link below. Again, a wealth of information I use often and helped me a lot upgrading my Wyse 5060s.

https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/wyse/5060/

Thanks. Will check them out.

 

[Beststash]

I haven't heard the term PDP 11 in about a thousand years or so. Do you remember the IBM 36 line?

I do remember it - a lot of accounting people I knew used it if I remember correctly. Most of the folks I knew that used it were using SSP and RPG and I was into Unix System III and C and used a PDP 11/03 with those dual 8" floppies to code. I had the UNIX source on a floppy (wish I still had a copy) When I went to a 11/40 it was a major upgrade.

This minicomputer talk brought back old memories. Those were fun times. ☮

 

[Jerry1]

Just logged onto Costco and they have macs on sale. The base Mac Mini is going for $499.

 

[rmcelwee]

1) Few hundred dollars cheaper.

I bought an HP Prodesk 600 G3 with an I7-7700 with 16GB ram, 256 SSD and Win11 Pro in SFF on Ebay for $88 shipped. That is twice as fast as your little computer. Since it is SFF you would have to buy half height cards if you wanted to add anything to it (I put a video card in so I can run three monitors). In 5 years I will buy another used SFF office computer, just like I did 5 years ago. You cannot possibly get a better deal than these refurbed office computers.

- Half your cost
- Twice as fast
- Twice the USB ports
- DVD player if I need it
- VGA port if I need it
- Upgradable
-
- Profit

 

[jim584672]

I bought an HP Prodesk 600 G3 with an I7-7700 with 16GB ram, 256 SSD and Win11 Pro in SFF on Ebay for $88 shipped. That is twice as fast as your little computer. Since it is SFF you would have to buy half height cards if you wanted to add anything to it (I put a video card in so I can run three monitors). In 5 years I will buy another used SFF office computer, just like I did 5 years ago. You cannot possibly get a better deal than these refurbed office computers.

- Half your cost
- Twice as fast
- Twice the USB ports
- DVD player if I need it
- VGA port if I need it
- Upgradable
-
- Profit

I've been doing the same thing, much more powerful and lower priced, especially if you catch a sale.

 

[meierlde]

You can, and you can! But used and refurbished move pretty fast.

My personal pref is 32 GB and 1 TB. But I could work with half of that.

If you include nuc (next unit of computing (Intel)) form factor then it will mount to the back of the monitor.
(about 4x4x2 in size) These do not have high powered graphics cards.
There do exist nuc models that are larger that do.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

I bought an HP Prodesk 600 G3 with an I7-7700 with 16GB ram, 256 SSD and Win11 Pro in SFF on Ebay for $88 shipped. That is twice as fast as your little computer. Since it is SFF you would have to buy half height cards if you wanted to add anything to it (I put a video card in so I can run three monitors). In 5 years I will buy another used SFF office computer, just like I did 5 years ago. You cannot possibly get a better deal than these refurbed office computers.

- Half your cost
- Twice as fast
- Twice the USB ports
- DVD player if I need it
- VGA port if I need it
- Upgradable
-
- Profit

Thank you. I am looking into used/refurbished/renewed PC's. I only asked about mini pc's as I have zero experience with them. Have too many years experience with conventional pc's. Thanks.

 

[rmcelwee]

Have too many years experience with conventional pc's.

I know what you mean. My living room circa 1993. I count 12 PCs with probably another 12 running in the spare bedroom.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

I know what you mean. My living room circa 1993. I count 12 PCs with probably another 12 running in the spare bedroom.

Dude! We must be related, except DW strongly encourages me to buy my next one until I dispose of the old.

 

[isisdave]

I have a Beelink Celeron model and it works OK. Celerons are decidedly slow (despite the name) but it's OK for its task.

In 2012 I was using an hp Z400 at work. When I retired I bought one for DW and it's still way faster and more reliable than needed. I did put an SSD into it. There's a Z800 if you need more power. You can find these online at refurbishers, and sometimes at Newegg.

Look on Facebook Marketplace. Where I live, there's a guy who acquires, rehabs, and sells old PCs, usually for $60-100. Maybe you have someone like that where you live. Look for a SFF (small form factor) model.

The other thing to think about is what version of Windows you want. I have Windows 7 on everything but the laptop we bought with 10. I hope I will expire before 7 does. I don't mind learning a new version, but I don't want to have to be an expert in two different ones any more. The XP computer didn't die, but I finally gave it away.

 

[rayvt]

The one drawback I've found so far is that the hardware doesn't pass the Windows11 compatibility test, so it's permanently on Windows10.

There are plenty of articles and youtube videos telling how to bypass those checks and allow you to install W11 on anything.

Thing is, though, that Win10 is just fine, arguably better than Win11.